USA > Ohio > The Ohio Valley in colonial days > Part 5
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* Known by the names of Caniaterundequat, Gannigatarontaquat, Oniada- rondaquatt, Orondokott, Terondoquatt, Tiorondequot, and sixteen others, see Index N. Y. Col. Doc.
77
In Colonial Days.
mercial centres of the day. They urged, that New York Colony should now build a fort at Tieronde- quat, and another at Oniagara, to keep the Five Na- tions steady in the British interest, and to clear the path for the more remote nations, from whom more peltries were now obtained, than from the Iroquois, whose hunting grounds in New York had become depleted of fur-bearing animals. The Assembly of New York readily understood the urgency of the case, and at their next session made an appropriation of £500 ($1,250) for securing the Indians in the English interest, which Governor Burnet devoted chiefly to erect buildings, and make a settlement at Tierondequat ; he garrisoned this place by consent of the Indians with a company of ten men. New York statesmen had become fully alive to the im- portance of doing something for the trade of their constituents, probably because their own pockets suffered by the general depression. In the year before granting the above-quoted small sum they had passed a law, to prohibit trading with the French in Indian goods, for which Albany too had been a famous place and which were readily purchased by the French, because with goods bought in the English provinces, they could supply the Far Nations at easier terms, than with Quebec importations. But by so doing they saved to these Far Nations the long marches to Albany, and no peltries consequently came to New York for the European trade. This trade with the French had assumed such dimensions,
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that the Indians would reproach New York with it saying, the French were building their forts with New York goods. Cadwallader Colden,* in his Memoir on the Fur Trade, dated November, 1724, + says about this commercial intercourse with Canada : "In the time of the last war the clandestine trade to Montreal began to be carried on by the Indians from Albany to Montreal. This gave rise to the Konuaga (Cana- wagha) or praying Indians,¿ who are entirely made up of deserters from the Mohawks and River Indians and were either enticed by the French priests or by our merchants in order to carry goods from Albany to Montreal, or run away from some mischief done here . They depend chiefly upon this private trade for their subsistence ; these Indians in time of war gave the French intelligence of all designs here against them. By them likewise the French engaged our Five Nations in a war with the Indians friends of Virginia, and from them we might expect the greatest mischief in time of war, seeing every part of the Province is as well known to them as to any of the inhabitants. But if this trade were entirely at an end, we have reason to believe that these Indians would return to their own tribes, for they then could not long subsist where they now are."
We see that the above-mentioned act of 1721 to prohibit the trade in Indian goods with the French was to serve two purposes, but according to Colden
* Surveyor-General, later Lieutenant-Governor of New York.
+ N. Y. Col. Hist., V, 732.
# Still living in their descendants at the place indicated above.
1
79
In Colonial Days.
it had not yet quite stopped this now illegal trade in 1724, and the Caghnawaga Indians steering the steamers through the La Chine rapids above Mon- treal are still an interesting side show for the traveler on the St. Lawrence.
The English trading house at Irondequat appa- rently did not produce the effect expected from it, for in May, 1725, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, was startled by the report, that the English had projected a settlement at the mouth of the Choueguen (Onondaga or Oswego) river, on the banks of Lake Ontario and inconveniently near the French post at Niagara. He and his advisers had always considered this part of New York as belong- ing to their King,* and they clearly understood the difficulty of preserving Niagara, the loss of which would render a trade with the Far Indians an impos- sibility. Various efforts were made by the French to prevent this as yet only projected fort at Choue- guen, but the only satisfaction which they could obtain was, that the Senecas would not allow them to build a fort at Niagara or anywhere else on their land, t and in 1727, Governor Burnet of New York was in the position to report, ¿ that he had sent workmen, to build a stone house of strength at a place called Oswego, at the mouth of the Onondaga river. He thought the French could have no just pretense of preventing it, but their lately building a fort at Nia-
* N. Y. Col. Hist., IX, 949.
+ Ib., V, 787.
# Ib., V, 818.
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gara, contrary to the last treaty, had cautioned him to be on his guard against attacks from them. The pen, which is so often called mightier than the sword, was in this case also slower, for the diplomatists of neither nation had as yet given satisfactory explana- tions of the boundaries, as fixed by the Treaty of Utrecht. Burnet claimed, that it did not allow the French to build a fort at Niagara, and Beauharnois, the Governor of Canada, looked upon the settlement at Oswego as a manifest infraction of the same treaty .* Nevertheless both were built and the two rival nationalities made a step nearer to the point, where of necessity they must converge with clashing interests.
The staunch friendship, which had hitherto united the Iroquois to the British interest, prevented the breaking out of the conflict at this time. Urged by Lieutenant-Governor Clarke of New York at a con- ference in July, 1737, they agreed not to allow the French to build a fort at Irondequat, + but neither could he obtain that permission for the English. Writing about it to the Lords of Trade in February, 1738,} he draws a rather dark picture of the situation : " If I fail in the attempt to obtain leave from the Six Nations to build a house at Tierondequat, and if the French succeed in getting it, then adieu to Oswego and all our fur trade, for Tierondequat will cut off entirely our western fur trade, and what the conse-
*N. Y. Col. Hist., V, 827.
+ Ib., VI, 107.
# Ib., VI, II2.
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In Colonial Days. 81
quences will be to England your Lordships well know, nor is the loss of our trade all that we are to apprehend, for with it we shall lose the Six Nations. It is with much difficulty and at a great annual expense to this Province in time of peace, without any assistance from our neighbors, that we have and now still retain the fidelity of the Six Nations, who with us in time of a French war are the only barrier to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Carolina."
Negotiations for the permission to build a fort at Irondequat continued to 1738, the Assembly of New York appropriated £100 ($250) for the pur- chase of ground, required for it, and at last Governor Clarke obtained a deed from the Iroquois in 1741. The fort, however, was never built, as fear of a French war prevented a settlement ; for as the human body, affected by rheumatism, feels in advance a coming rainstorm, so has the body politic a forebod- ing of a disturbance in the circulation of its commer- cial and agricultural veins. Three years after Tene- hokaiwee, Tewassajes and Staghreche, the principal Sachems of the Senecas, had signed the deed for the transfer to the English of Irondequat and surround- ing country, twenty miles along the lake and thirty miles to the south of it,* King George's war filled the minds of the English colonists with other thoughts than those of settling in the far Indian country.
* N. Y. Col. MSS., Indian Treaties.
II
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The Ohio Valley in Colonial Days.
The boundaries between the French and English possessions on this continent had not yet been fixed, thirty years after the Utrecht Treaty had provided, that it should be done. The English based their titles to land principally upon the purchases from the Indians, and on this principle the Governor of Pennsylvania, with commissioners from Virginia and Maryland, acquired at the Indian treaty of Lancaster in 1744, "all the territory which is or may be within the limits of the Colony of Virginia, according to his Majesty's order." The French looked upon this purchase with unqualified distrust and resented this invasion of what they claimed as their territory, by a declaration of war in March, 1744, which waged until 1748, but left the lake country again undisturbed.
CHAPTER V.
THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE TEUTONIC AND THE LATIN RACES TRANSFERRED TO THE OHIO VALLEY.
From Champlain to Montcalm the French, by diplomacy and religion, by threats and by flatteries, and by all the resources of Gallic wit, address and force, had endeavored to gain over the Iroquois to their king and cause ; but ever loyal to the covenant, made in early colonial days, with the Dutch at Albany and confirmed upon the surrender of New Netherland to the English, they adhered to the Teu- tonic race. They stood as a stone wall, a break- water, keeping off the storm and tide of French aggression and assisted the English colonies, who nourished the Indians' strength to win from the Gaul and from Latin ideas of civilization, what are now some of the most important States of the Union.
Oswego was soon in a position to threaten the French trade at Niagara with complete annihilation. The following report, made by the Commissary at Oswego in 1749, tells us, that nearly one-third of the Indians, intending to come to Oswego, had been intercepted and forcibly detained at Niagara, and
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yet the number of those who reached Oswego is considerable.
Names of each Nation.
Number of canoes
from each Nation.
No. of People.
No. of Fur Packs.
Wayactenacks.
39
318
293
Potawimmies
20
160
140
Miamis
II
88
77
Missassagas ..
25
200
175
Monomunies
IO
80
70
Michilimackimaks
9
72
63
Oroonducks
I
8
7
Shepawees
32
256
224
Cocknawagas and Shoenidies
43
344
301
French Traders.
3
36
35
193
1,562
1, 385
He computes the value of each pack at £14, which gives for the whole number of packs from the Far Nations, 1,349, the amount of £18,886,* or $47,215, as probably pounds, New York currency, are given.
The French, having discovered, how futile their attempts were to break the covenant chain between Corlear, or rather Quidor, and the Iroquois, and see- ing that the fort at Oswego not only interfered with their trade at, but also threatened the very existence of Niagara, tried to counteract this injurious effect by establishments at Presqu'ile (now Erie, Penna.),
* N. Y. Col. Hist., VI, 538.
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In Colonial Days.
French creek,* and Venango, which appear as mili- tary posts on d'Anville's map of " Amérique Septen- trionale " in 1746, and thus entered the valley of the Ohio with territorial and no longer purely commer- cial intentions. To this end the Marquis de la Galis- sonière, Governor of Canada, sent in 1749, Captain Bienville de Celoron to take once more possession of the Ohio country for the King of France. His letter to Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania, dated "From our Camp on the Beautiful River, at an old Shawnee Village," shows, that the act was to be un- derstood not as a mere formality, for he came with troops and drove out all the English traders in the country. "We, Celoron, Captain, Knight of the Military Order of St. Louis," said he,+ " commanding a detachment sent by the Marquis de la Galissonière, Governor-in-chief of New France, have on the banks of the Beautiful River summoned the Englishmen, whom we have found in an Indian town, situate on the bank of the Beautiful River, to retire with all their effects and baggage to New England on pain of being treated as interlopers and rebels in case of refusal ; to which summons they have answered, that they were going to start for Philadelphia, their coun- try, with all their effects."
The Indians on the Ohio were told by him, that the French were again coming to trade with them and that he was going with his soldiers to chastise
* Rivière aux Bœufs of old maps.
+ N. Y. Col. Doc., VI, 132; Penn. Col. Records, V, 425.
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the Twightwees and Wyandots for trading with the English. The Indians were not pleased with this announcement. They declared, that the land was their own and that while there were any Indians in those parts, they would trade with their brothers, the English. The threat of whipping the Twightwees was considered by them as a jest .* Celoron, how- ever, left a memorial of his visit and of his act of tak- ing possession all along his route down the Ohio, in the shape of leaden plates, of which several are still in existence.+
Mr. Charles P. Keith, of Philadelphia, tells, in an article on Sir William Keith, ¿ of the first project, to make the newly-discovered country of use to the English. He says:
"Chief Justice Marshall's 'Life of Washington,' attributes to Sir William Keith the conception of the project of taxing America by Act of Parlia- ment. It was suggested by him some time before the Spanish War, as the means of providing for the common defense of the Colonies, and as such it was urged by a company having interests there, or a 'Club of Americn Merchants,' of which he was a member, probably the Ohio Company. The propo- sition, as embodied in the two papers on the sub- ject, emanating from this source, and supposed to
* N. Y. Col. Hist., VI, 533.
+ Fac-similes are given in the Pennsylvania Archives, 2d series, VI, 80 ; see, also, for accounts of them, Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, I, 62, and Dinwiddie Papers, I, 95.
# Penn. Mag. of History and Biography, April, 1888.
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In Colonial Days.
have been written by him, was to raise and maintain a military force for the protection of the British col- onies, and to establish a general council of their Governors to assist the Commander-in-Chief, and to defray the expense by stamp duties similar to those in England, supposed to be the easiest method of taxation. These were to be imposed by Parliament because the several Assemblies 'never could be brought in voluntarily to raise such a Fund by any general and equally proportioned Tax among them- selves.' Coxe's 'Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole' (page 753), saying that soon after the excise scheme, which failed in 1733, Sir William Keith, 'who had been deputy-governor of Virginia (sic), came over with a plan of an American tax,' then relates, on the authority of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, that Lord Chesterfield, having asked Walpole what he thought of it, Walpole replied, 'I have old England set against me, and do you think I will have new Eng- land likewise?' Yet, it is probable that, had the plan then been carried into execution, with as popu- lar an official as Sir William for stamp-master, which he may have hoped to be, it would not have had the same consequences as a quarter of a century later, when the Colonies had become more powerful and more warlike, and the proceeds of the tax were to go into the British treasury. Years after the death of the subject of this sketch some of his ideas were acted upon by the British government, and the two papers were reprinted for its vindication as the senti-
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ments 'of the greatest friends to America.' In let- ters to John Adams, written in 1813, Thomas Mc- Kean says, 'The Congress at Albany in 1754 was . . . in reality to propose the least offensive plan for raising a revenue in America. In 1739, Sir William Keith, a Scotch gentleman, who had been a Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania, proposed such an assembly to the ministry. He also proposed the extension of the British stamp duties to the Colonies. He was then, I believe, in the Fleet prison. The hints he gave were embraced, the first in 1754, the second in 1764.' (Works of John Adams, vol. X, p.
73, edit. 1856.) ' The anecdote of Sir William Keith's proposal to the British ministry is to be found in the latter end of the first volume of Ameri- can tracts, printed by J. Almon, in London, 1767. It had been published in London in 1739, and is titled 'A proposal for establishing by act of Parlia- ment the duties upon stamped paper and parchment in all the British Colonies.' Part of the anecdote I had by tradition, and in a novel, 'Peregrine Pickle.' (Ibid., p. 80.)"
About this time* John Hanbury, a Quaker mer- chant of London, Thomas Lee of the Virginia Coun- cil, Lawrence and Augustus Washington, brothers of George, and others, obtained from the Crown a grant of 500,000 acres of land in the present Jeffer- son and Columbiana counties of Ohio, and Brooke county of West Virginia. The principal object of
* See Appendix D.
In Colonial Days. 89
this company, called the Ohio Company, was trade with the Indians, for we may call the plans of colonizing the country west of the Alleghany moun -- tains an after-thought, although their patent de- manded, that 200,000 acres of the grant should be settled within a few years. The troubles with the French and the Indians suspended the operations of the company until the close of the war. Intrigues, started by counteracting interests, caused an unau- thorized merger of the Ohio Company into the Wal- pole or Grand Company, and while the shareholders of the former were still protesting against this action of their London agent, the War of the Revolution broke out and put out of existence both companies .*
This started the "boom," to use a modern expres- sion, for western lands. The Governor and Council of Virginia granted, July 12, 1749, leave to John Lewis, Thomas Walker and others, to take up and survey 800,000 acres, in one or more surveys, begin- ning on the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, and running west and north. This " Loyal Company " was also prevented by the events of the succeeding years from carrying out the necessary surveys, and obtained in June, 1753, an order extend- ing the time for a return of surveys. They could now begin operations and actually sold several par- cels of 100 acres at £3. War again interfered in 1754, and when in 1763 the company petitioned for a renewal and confirmation of their grant, the authori-
* Dinwiddie Papers, I, 17.
I2
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ties of Virginia were of opinion, that the King's in- structions restrained them from granting such renewal.
One hundred thousand acres of land on Green- briar river,* north-west and west of the " Cow-Pas- ture " and Newfoundland were granted to the Green- briar Company, October 29, 1751.1 Their opera- tions were likewise brought to a standstill in 1754, by the breaking out of the war, after they had already succeeded in selling several tracts of land. The royal proclamation of December 16, 1763, prohibiting the settlement or grant of any lands on the western waters, suspended the undertaking until 1773, when the Governor and Council of Virginia, considering the grant to the company still in force, allowed the surveys and settlements to be resumed.
The French looked with jealousy upon this new English interpretation of the international maxim of premier seisin, that first discovery, even without oc- cupation, should establish title. The remarkable claim, that Englishmen from Connecticut had dis- covered the Ohio valley,¿ had not yet been made public, but we see that the English authorities dis- posed of lands there without hesitation. French travelers had called the attention of their govern- ment and countrymen long ago to the importance of the greatwater-way which facilitated the communi- cation between Canada and Louisiana.§ " A free
* A tributary of the Great Kanawha.
+ Call, Virginia Reports, IV, 21 et seq.
# See Appendix C.
§ Charlevoix, VI, 157.
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In Colonial Days,
and certain passage," says Governor de la Gallison- nière of Canada in a Memoir of December, 1750,* " from Canada to the Mississippi, is an absolute neces- sity. This chain once broken would leave an open- ing, of which the English would doubtless take ad- vantage, to get nearer to the silver mines.
* The Governors of Canada have been deterred from making settlements there, fearing contraband trade between French traders and the English. Neither have the English any posts there, nor did they come to trade, except clandestinely, until the last war, when the revolt of some neighboring nations against the French encouraged them to come more boldly. They have been summoned since the peace, to retire, and if they do not do so, force must be used, otherwise the case would be the same as at Chouegen,t and that would be still more disastrous; for a post on the Ohio would possess more opportunities to do dam- age than Chouegen alone.
I. They would have much greater opportunities there than at Chouegen, to seduce the Indian nations.
2. They would possess more facilities to interrupt the communication between Canada and Louisiana, for the Beautiful river affords almost the only route for the conveyance from Canada to the River Missis- sippi of detachments capable of securing that still feeble Colony against the incursions of the neighbor- ing Carolina Indians, whom the English are un- ceasingly exciting against the French.
* N. Y. Col. Hist., X, 229.
+ Oswego, N. Y.
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The Ohio Valley
3. If the English ever become strong enough in America to dare attempt the conquest of Mexico, it will be by this Beautiful river, which they must ne- cessarily descend."
The English did not dare to take immediate pos- session of the Ohio country, although as yet only few French troops were there to defend it, and did not move at all, notwithstanding they received warnings from different sources. Captain Marshall, command- ing at Albany, received notice in 1749, and trans- mitted it to his superiors, that an army of nearly 1,000 Frenchmen were moving toward the Ohio, in order to prevent the English from settling there .* Almost a year later, April, 1750, Sir William Johnson writes : "The French have had ever since the peace officers and interpreters with great quantities of goods for presents to all the foreign nations, but much more at the settlements of Indians on the Ohio, than any- where else."+ Even the warning given a few weeks later, that the French have made an alliance with western tribes and intend to destroy the Indians on the Ohio, who are in the British interest,¿ had no effect upon either New York or Pennsylvania, the Colonies most affected by such a move. Governor Clinton of New York thought it prudent to send the Indians, adherents of the English, some powder to defend themselves, but the Council would not hear of it and nothing was done. The home government was
* N. Y. Col. MSS., Council Minutes, XXI, 354.
+ Ib. 375.
į Ib. 380.
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In Colonial Days.
equally inactive and paid no or very little attention to Governor Clinton's letter of the Ist of October, 1751, in which he said : " If the French go on in this manner without obstruction or any thing done on our part, to secure us and the Indians in friendship with us, the French in a little time must obtain an abso- lute influence over all the Indian nations on the Con- tinent; and a vessel of such force [as the French were said to be building on Lake Ontario] will be sufficient to dispossess us of Oswego." Charles Townshend, one of the Lords of Trade and Planta- tions, was a better statesman than his colleagues, but he could not induce them to advocate in Council his plan of aggressive measures in taking possession of the Ohio region by force.
The French were not so dilatory. They sent one of their most astute Indian agents, Chabert de Jon- caire, to the Ohio in 1750, to build a house at the carrying place between Lake Erie and the Ohio, where all western Indians should be supplied with whatever goods they might need, and thus be saved the long journey to Oswego.+ In the following year four English traders were taken prisoners by the French for trading on the Ohio contrary to an ordi- nance of the Governor of Canada, although it was claimed, on the English side, the country belonged to the Six Nations and Twightwees, allied to the Eng- lish by a covenant chain for a long time past. There
* N. Y. Col. Hist., VI, 538.
+ Ib. 609.
# Ib. 735.
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was some talk of reprisals, but competent authorities declared it inconsistent with the laws of nations, while peace reigned between the two rival nations .*
In the same year George Croghan, Indian agent, and, through many years of trading among the In- dians, well acquainted with the territory and its condi- tions, was sent by the Governor of Pennsylvania to the Ohio, with presents for the Indians. In one of the speeches which he proposed to make, but had to submit to the Governor for approval before starting out on his journey, it was "strongly expressed " that Pennsylvania should build a fort on the Ohio for the protection of the Indian trade from insults and injuries by the French. The Governor did not approve of it and ordered Croghan first to sound the Indians on this subject. Scaroyadi, the Half King, and his friends and advisers in the tribe, were willing to have such a representation of English protection in their country and had wished for it ever since Celoron's expedition in 1749, when the proceedings of the French did not all meet favor in the Indian eyes. They designated the forks of the Monongahela as the best place for such an establishment. However, when Croghan reported the result of his negotia- tions, the government of Pennsylvania did not approve, and again nothing was done, because it was thought the Six Nations would not allow the erec- tion of a trading house at the indicated place, although Scaroyadi had been able to tell Croghan,
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